Play the Panorama is an endless ‘relay travelogue’ that started during the summer of 2008 in Kemerovo, Siberia. The project was initiated by the Dutch artist Ronald Huynen. He designed a drawing instrument that contains a long paper scroll that enables one to make extremely long drawings. The tool is portable, lightweight and made for traveling.

It all began when Ronald Huynen visited Siberia, and presented the instrument to local artists. Participants were asked to continue to draw a moving landscape, an interpretation of the world that surrounds them. When the artist completes his/her drawing, the instrument and the panorama must be passed to the next participant who is geographically nearby and whose work is somehow artistically related to that of the previous participant. This next person will continue the former drawing, blending the new landscape into one continuous panorama.

Upon completion of the drawing, the participating artist sends a series of scanned images of the drawing to the organisation of this project in the Netherlands. All images are then seamlessly merged to the rest of the panorama. This way it is possible to view the entire drawing. All new contributions will be directly published on this website.

One can play a violin. Theatre is a played performance. And you press the play button of a DVD-player to watch a movie. Play the Panorama should be seen as a play or even as a game. A play often must be shared. One cannot play alone. One plays a game with some friends.

Moreover these types of panoramas are also a form of travelogue, they tell a story about a part of this world. We are moved in space and in time. The unknown journey and the evolving drawing itself, are the main characters of this tale. No one can predict the course of these panoramas, however a storyline will eventually emerge.

A panorama play should be infinite. It should never stop: the rules simply do not allow it. To end this game is not to win or to lose, but to destroy it by breaking a fundamental rule. That the final outcome is not known makes it a true game. Played not for winning but to share an infinitely expanding horizon. To develop an astonishing story we cannot finish. Like in most games and stories there is an element of risk involved. Will the instrument be relayed? The length, the course, and the quality of the travelogues that will be written is very unpredictable. Each single participant controls the faith of the entire drawing.

These panoramas are not only drawn to be viewed on this website. This website shows only a documentation of the projects. Sooner or later all panoramas should be exhibited on various traveling exhibitions world wide. Also when a panorama has traveled some distance, the journey will be published in a series of small magazines.

Genuine travelers travel not to overcome distance but to discover distance. And the artist’s distance is not determined by the measurable length between places, but by the actual differences between them.